Whilst it's possible that the saying does have roots into the weaving and/or grain processing industries, it has a strong and definite relationship with the mining and mineral processing sector. I'm pretty sure the term in this sense was developed and exported to the colonies by Cornish miners.

There wouldn't be an operating (non-coal) mine in Australia that didn't have a ROM stockpile. In this case however, the acronym stands for 'run of mine' and it refers to ore grade material awaiting processing. Once ROM material (also referred to as ore feed) is loaded into the mill for processing it becomes ROM - ie run of mill. I'm not sure about coal mines but, because coal typically doesn't get processed before it becomes useful, I can't see why a coal mine would have a ROM stockpile.

Processing circuits are generally designed to process ROM material that conforms to a narrow range of parameters such as ore grade, viscosity, hardness, SG, particle size etc. Thus the material being processed generally looks, smells, feels and behaves the same over long periods of time - to ensure a continuity of product. Any variations in ore out of the mine itself (ie the hole in the ground) are compensated for by blending different material types in the processing circuit. Thus, a mill configured to process soft, low grade ROM material would need to blend hard, high grade ore with lots of soft low grade material to ensure the balance between material in, reagent and energy consumption - and product out. Blending strategies are very important on all mine sites - including coal mines (some customers will want low ash content and/or low sulfur content etc)

The terminology would translate across all milling operations, regardless of the product.

stales